


Lost Boy

by damnnjoon



Category: GOT7, Kpop - Fandom, Yugyeom - Fandom, bambam - Fandom, yugbam - Fandom
Genre: Homophobia, M/M, Slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-02 23:25:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6587428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/damnnjoon/pseuds/damnnjoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kunpimook is a lost boy, and Yugyeom is like Neverland.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost Boy

_There was a time when I was alone_  
_Nowhere to go and no place to call home_  
_My only friend was the man in the moon_  
_And even sometimes he would go away, too_

After the worst nights, right before he drifted off into an uneasy sleep, Kunpimook always sat quietly in a moonlight-illuminated square of space in front of his window. When he was younger, 5, 6, 7, 8, he had believed that sitting in the moonlight long enough and silently enough would make his bruises less obvious.

It never worked, but that belief kept him alive. Once this idea was outgrown, once the beatings got so brutal even Kunpimook couldn't deny them, however, the now grown adolescent still found himself at 2 or 3 in the morning, holding his bruised cheek or arm or leg, sitting in the moonlit part of his bedroom floor, staring out at the world he had never enjoyed. It looked a lot more beautiful with nobody in it but the moon and himself, he believed. 

It definitely looked more beautiful without his father in it. 

That was his time - those few hours alone with just him and the silence around him, sitting bathed in light. That was as close to okay he ever got, and those moments alone kept him alive. The nights the moon was missing in action were the worst. 

Kunpimook never could sleep those nights.

At school, even, he was alone. Sure, he had acquaintances, but, like everything else in his life that he could control, he kept them at bay. 

It was a singular existence and he followed a private schedule- wake up, eat and brush and get ready and out the door as quickly as possible, go to school, go through his classes, and get home as swiftly as possible.. People speculated, spoke of him behind his back, but by high school Kunpimook had long learned how to pay attention to the unspoken. It didn't bother him. He didn't want to cause problems in school - it was keeping him away from home for most of the day, and thus keeping him alive.

 _Then one night, as I closed my eyes,_  
_I saw a shadow flying high_  
_He came to me with the sweetest smile_  
_Told me he wanted to talk for awhile_  
_He said, “Peter Pan—that’s what they call me._  
_I promise that you’ll never be lonely.”_  
_And ever since that day…_

He hadn't expected this.

Kunpimook's self created image of loneliness was furthered by his silent insistence on sitting and eating alone at lunch. Perched on a cafeteria window ledge, self made sack lunch balanced carefully on his knees, the tiny Thai boy was overlooked by all others in his grade. He didn't mind, of course. It was what he wanted.

This was why, when a shadow fell across his hunched form one day, Kunpimook looked up in surprise.

He was greeted by the tallest and most broad shouldered human he had ever laid eyes on, paired with the brightest grin he had ever witnessed in the hallways of a high school.

"Can I sit here? I'm new, and you looked lonely, and I don't know anyone, so I figured..." His slightly high pitched voice trails off, his partially bang covered eyes searching Kunpimook's. 

The latter wants so badly to say no, to tell him that he isn't lonely, he just likes being alone, but Kunpimook had never been a good liar. 

The bruises on his back and legs proved that to him, as well as the scars on his shoulders and biceps. His father had no tolerance for lies, none at all.

"Sit." He said quietly, moving over to make room for the taller junior, who was now beaming.

"I'm Yugyeom." The boy said, holding out a hand for Kunpimook to take. The smaller boy found himself smiling a smile that was balanced exquisitely between wholly fake and wholly real.

"I'm Kunpimook." He responded, shaking the larger hand once, twice, then dropping it. Confusion flashed across Yugyeom's face for a split second, before he looked sheepishly at the other, who just smiled an empty smile back.

"Just call me BamBam." The nickname, given to him by his mother before she had died, fell off his tongue haphazardly, leaving a sour taste behind. Yugyeom seemed to not notice, however, and Kunpimook was thankful, for once, that oblivion was present in the boy in front of him.

Yugyeom carried most of the conversation on his broad shoulders, amicably trying to get the other to open up. When he received only one sentence answers, his smile waned. With a small stab of regret, Kunpimook reckoned that the next day, Yugyeom would sit elsewhere with others who would actually speak. He shook that feeling off however, and attempted to convince himself that he didn't actually want to talk to anyone, and that that would be for the best.

Imagine his surprise when Yugyeom sat there the next day, and the next, until Kunpimook forgot to keep track of the weeks he spent lunch at the gentle giant's side.

His small world had opened, letting in a newcomer for the first time in seventeen years.

 _I am a lost boy from Neverland_  
_Usually hanging out with Peter Pan_  
_And when we're bored we play in the woods_  
_Always on the run from Captain Hook_  
_"Run, run, lost boy," they say to me,_  
_"Away from all of reality."_  
  
_Neverland is home to lost boys like me_  
 _And lost boys like me are free_

"Let's go out for lunch."

It had been approximately a month or so since Kunpimook had allowed Yugyeom to tear down the first few bricks in his carefully built up walls. Day by day, the older 11th grader found himself giving a small piece of himself to the other, and taking a small part of Yugyeom in return. Their conversation was still limited to Yugyeom speaking for most of the lunch and occasionally asking BamBam questions, receiving one sentence and two sentence replies. The fact that this only strengthened the younger's resolve to coax something, anything out of Kunpimook instead of causing it to waver, impressed the latter. 

Nobody had ever tried to talk to him before.

This did not mean they were friends, however, because Kunpimook knew they were entirely different. Yugyeom went on and on about the fun he had at dance practice with his friends, about the things his mother did and father did and how his life was. Kunpimook never spoke of extracurricular activies - signing up for them could always incur his father's wrath. With his mother gone and his father made mostly of liquor and anger, the topic of family never occurred to him when it came to day to day conversations. They could not be friends - Yugyeom would never understand him, and what he needed was somebody who felt what he felt, who hurt like he did.

They were just two boys who sat together at lunch... up until Yugyeom asked if they could take his car and go through a drive through or something, because he didn't want the cafeteria 'lunch' and he hadn't brought anything from home.

Acquaintances sat together at lunch. Friends went out to eat together.

Instead of trying to explain this to Yugyeom, who Kunpimook was sure would embrace the idea of friendship far better than himself, he tried to squirrel his way out of it.

"I don't have money, and I brought a lunch from home." He held up the brown paper sack, which Yugyeom promptly snatched up and opened. He raised an eyebrow and looked up at Kunpimook.

"This is, like, half a sandwich. And I didn't say you had to pay, I just got my paycheck from Hollister." 

Kunpimook opened his mouth, and then closed it again. He looked down, then looked back up at Yugyeom, who was sporting an incredibly pleading look. The elder could feel himself succumb to that face - the quirked eyebrow, the hopeful eyes, the slightly nervous smile. Sighing, he got up and neatly folded his lunch.

"I'll put this in my locker, and then we can go."

~

Kunpimook had never ridden in the front seat before, let alone in a covertible. Feeling the wind in his hair made him feel something he hadn't in a long time - the boy was still far from happiness, but not from feeling freedom. 

He was still apprehensive, of course, because the idea of friendship was foreign to him. Kunpimook was still not entirely sure if he even wanted friends. He enjoyed, at least sometimes, being around Yugyeom, which was more than he could say for anybody else. Maybe it was the way he spoke, like the entire world was for him to explore, or how Kunpimook could see more stars in Yugyeom's eyes than when he sat on his bedroom floor, staring out into the night sky. Kunpimook was suddenly overtaken with the extreme urge to call himself Yugyeom's friend, or Yugyeom's probably-more-than-an-acquaintance, or something along those lines.

The idea of him, Kunpimook Bhuwakul, loner extraordinaire, having a friend was so new, so strange, that as the car rolled to a stop at a red light, he found himself laughing. It was a sound he himself hadn't heard in a long time, and it surprised both him and the convertible's driver.

Yugyeom looked over to him for a second, before turning back to keep his eyes on the light. Nevertheless, he still asked.

"What's so funny?"

Kunpimook didn't reply, wasn't sure how to, until they hit another red light, barely a couple of minutes later.

"Yugyeom, are we friends?" He sounded genuine, as if he wasn't entirely sure of how he himself would answer it. Yugyeom seemed taken aback for a moment. Instead of responding right away, he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. Then, he looked over at the patiently waiting Kunpimook.

"Only if you want to be, BamBam." 

Kunpimook looked to his right, out at the other cars that were lined up to shoot past the light when it turned green again. Just as it was certain what color the light would turn next, the Thai boy was suddenly certain of his answer.

"Of course."

Lunch was increasingly becoming Kunpimook's favorite time of day.

 _He sprinkled me in pixie dust and told me to believe_  
_Believe in him and believe in me_  
_Together we will fly away in a cloud of green_  
_To your beautiful destiny_  
_As we soared above the town that never loved me_  
_I realized I finally had a family_  
_Soon enough we reached Neverland_  
_Peacefully my feet hit the sand_  
_And ever since that day..._

Kunpimook hadn't considered that Yugyeom had secrets, so he was understandably surprised when he found the younger by the school dumpster, joint loose in his fingers and lighter in the other hand. For once he looked not like a giant kindergardener, all smiley and arms and legs and overflowing with affection. Instead his head was against the wall, eyes closed and lips pushed out, blowing smoke rings. Yugyeom was the picture of relaxation - he looked like he had no worries in the world.

Kunpimook envied that. 

Yugyeom took another hit, another drag, and Kunpimook couldn't deny that he looked beautiful like that, surrounded by smoke and mystery yet looking so serene.

"Yugyeom?" He asked tentatively, pulling the other boy out of his stupor. If he hadn't been high, Kunpimook was positive the giant would have freaked out at being caught by the smaller boy, but instead he just shot him a lazy smirk, and Kunpimook found himself wanting to stare at that smirk forever.

"Want one?" The typically gentle giant asked, his voice sounder deeper than usual, hoarser than usual. 

"Isn't it bad for you?" Kunpimook questioned, but he knew he'd end up taking one. He wanted a joint, worse that he'd wanted anything. 

Maybe he just wanted to join his friend in the temporarily stressless world he was in.

"Nah." Is the response he got, and Kunpimook dropped his backpack to the ground to go lean against the wall, Yugyeom's cloud of smoke causing him to cough. 

"The smoke will take a while to get used to." The younger boy said, before lighting a joint and handing it to Kunpimook, who took a drag and immediately felt like coughing his lungs out. Yugyeom pounded him on the back before showing him how to properly smoke a joint. Lips, like so. Inhale it, like so. Keep it there for a few seconds, feel it in your lungs and in your body, and it lifting you up, like so. Blow it out, like so.

In the setting sun and with the smoke around him, Kunpimook feeling the effects of the weed seep in through his skin and into his lungs and body and soul and getting used to the smell, he couldn't help but stare at Yugyeom. Yugyeom, bathed in sunlight, his eyes closed again and his lips looking so beautiful. Yugyeom, his hair looking soft and the smoke making him seem mysterious. Yugyeom, Yugyeom, Yugyeom.

It could be the high talking, or it could be something Kunpimook's been trying to keep to himself for a long time, but either way he knows that Yugyeom is beautiful. He is perfect and golden, and like everything else perfect and golden in his life, Kunpimook is afraid of him and afraid of what he stands for, what he could mean for Kunpimook.

Was weed his drug, or is it Yugyeom? The Thai boy wasn't so sure. 

What he was sure of was that Yugyeom was all he had, and meant more to him than anything. In the short months they had known each other, despite Kunpimook's initial fear of friendship and of not being alone, he had inevitably been pulled into Yugyeom's orbit, and Yugyeom into his. 

Overwhelmed with emotions, Kunpimook had Yugyeom's collar in his hands and was pulling before he knew what he himself was doing.

"BamBam-"

"Shut up." 

And Kunpimook pressed his lips to Yugyeom's. They both smelled like weed, but Kunpimook could taste cherry lipbalm on Yugyeom's perfect lips. For a heartstopping second the taller boy didn't move, didn't do anything - but then Kunpimook felt strong arms wrap around his slender waist and suddenly everything was all right, for a short moment in his life, everything was okay. 

They finally pulled apart, both of them panting. The high had yet to wear of - they had an hour or so left before it did. Fear can conquer even weed, however, and as Kunpimook found himself staring into Yugyeom's eyes he realized that the sky was on fire and the sun was ready to wink out of existence for the night and, fuck, he was smoking weed with somebody who was possibly more than a friend behind their goddamn high school instead of being at home, where his father was.

"I have to go." He mumbled, stepping back, a look of acute terror becoming apparent on his features. 

"Wait-" 

"I have to go!" Kunpimook repeated again, pulling up his backpack and running, running away from what he had just done and who he shouldn't have been with and where he shouldn't have been to somebody he didn't want to be with, somewhere he didn't want to be. He didn't look back.

It was all for the better - if he had, he knew he wouldn't have been able to leave Yugyeom there like that.

~

The television wasn't on, and nothing could be heard from his father's bedroom when he walked in. He was probably out, then, spending all of their money on liquor. Better that than at home, however.

Kunpimook held in his sigh of relief, opting instead to walk as silently to his room as he could and then lock it from the inside. Barely a yard from the door and what meant safety, however, he found a painfully familiar form blocking his path.

"You came home an hour late, and you smell like weed." His father stated, instead of asked. Kunpimook wasn't dumb, even when his senses were dulled by the high he was still experiencing. He said nothing to refute nor confirm what his father said.

"Where were you?" Kunpimook swallowed, trying to undry his throat.

"Behind the school." He winced immediately as the words left his mouth, and he was right to do so- he found himself being unceremoniously shoved against the nearest wall, his dad's drunken breath enveloping him.

"Where are you supposed to be?"

"Here."

One slap, right cheek.

"Who were you with?"

"My friend."

One slap, left cheek.

"Who are you supposed to be with?"

"You."

A kick, right behind his knees, making Kunpimook fall to the ground.

"What were you doing?"

Being almost happy. Being free. Feeling okay, for once. Not being alone. Being with Yugyeom. Feeling the high get into me, control me, make me okay. Destressing. 

Yugyeom. Kissing him, feeling his lips on mine and the smoke in both of our lungs and feeling his hands on my hips and my hands in his hair.

"What were you doing?" His father asked again, adding a slap for good measure, and Kunpimook knew he couldn't say what he'd been thinking. He couldn't lie, either.

"Smoking weed."

A kick to his stomach, and Kunpimook's seeing stars. He's gasping for breath, doubled over. Another kick. Another. One to his face, and Kunpimook knows.

Weed can make you feel like your problems are gone, but when they live with you and see you everyday, you can't miss them.

He went to sleep after throwing up - it tasted like his lunch, weed, and he was sure there was some blood. This time, he doesn't bother looking at the moon. It can't hide the bruises on his face.

Kunpimook won't be at school for a good two days.

 _I am a lost boy from Neverland_  
_Usually hanging out with Peter Pan_  
_And when we’re bored we play in the woods_  
_Always on the run from Captain Hook_  
_“Run, run, lost boy,” they say to me,_  
_“Away from all of reality.”_  
  
_Neverland is home to lost boys like me_  
 _And lost boys like me are free_

He dreams of Peter Pan - his favorite childhood story. His mother had read it to him all the time, back when she was alive and he was too young to understand the world. 

Kunpimook knows, now, that the Lost Boys in the book were really departed souls of children. All of the characters are dead, but for the Darlings, living in Neverland - their own heaven.

His half asleep, half awake state causes him to connect himself to a Lost Boy and Yugyeom to Peter. Yugyeom, who saved him when he needed it the most, without knowing it. Yugyeom, who tasted like cherries and towered over him and who was, maybe, more than a friend.

Shit.

Yugyeom, who he had kissed and then run from, leaving confused and covered in cannabis smoke, by a dumpster.

~

Two days of hell later, and, surprisingly, no more hits or punches from his father, Kunpimook's visible bruises have faded. He wakes up early, does his morning routine twice as fast, and gets the hell out of his house.

The small high school junior goes from one angry man at home to a confused and saddened one at school.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

~

"What was that?"

He didn't actually see Yugyeom until lunch, and he was more than a bit surprised (and euphoric) to see the taller boy sitting at the window ledge, their window ledge. Nonetheless, he expected the questions, if he every saw Yugyeom again. Still, Kunpimook flinched at the accusatory tone in which they were delivered. When Yugyeom didn't get an answer, he spit out another question.

"You-You left me there, standing alone, like an idiot. You just ran! What was it - you didn't want to kiss me? You don't like me? I thought you loved me back but the way you ing ran, I guess-"

"Yugyeom." Kunpimook interrupted, wishing for the onslaught of words to stop. The giant took a deep breath.

"I have to say this, BamBam. You're really important to me and then you made me feel like I mean a lot to you and then you just fucking left..."

Yugyeom continued on, and Kunpimook found his hands at the hem of his shirt. What he was about to do would change his life forever, for better or for worse, and, on some level, the smaller boy knew that.

"Yugyeom." He said again, with slightly more conviction. This time he wasn't even given a response - the younger just bulldozed over his words and continued speaking. 

That was too bad, because Kunpimook was tired of not being heard.

"God damn it, Yugyeom!" Without waiting for Yugyeom to say anything, Kunpimook lifted up his shirt, enough so that the taller could see the ugly purple bruise that covered his torso. He was glad that nobody was paying him and Yugyeom any attention - however, at seeing the other's reaction to his bruise, Kunpimook took the younger by the hand, sighed, and said they'd have to continue their conversation outside. 

Ironically, they found themselves by the dumpster, yet again in a secret only the two of them could share.

Yugyeom didn't talk for a long time, and neither did the Thai boy. When the former did speak, finally, it was soft and unsure, and his voice wavered ever so slightly. Kunpimook expected an 'I'm sorry.' or 'How long?' or even a 'Let me help you.'

What he didn't expect was Yugyeom taking Kunpimook's smaller hand in his large one, looking him straight in the eyes, and telling him that he needed Yugyeom's phone number.

"I...I don't have a phone." Kunpimook looked up, up, into Yugyeom's eyes. Those eyes that had shone like a night sky full of stars even minutes prior now looked duller, as if whole galaxies had just disappeared. For a moment he wondered - if Yugyeom's eyes looked like that after just seeing what was happening to Kunpimook, how did Kunpimook look to the younger after going through it? Luckily, the Thai boy had little time to ponder it, as the taller one pulled him into his chest.

Yugyeom's scent was suffocating in the best way possible.

"I'll buy you a burner phone and put my number into it. That way, if you need me really, really badly, you can call me easily." He mumbled into Kunpimook's hair. "Or can you call from your mom's phone?"

"She died, in fifth grade. That's when he got worse." Is the reply Yugyeom gets, and he pulls the smaller boy slightly closer to him.

"Burner it is. We have twenty minutes left in lunch - we can make it."

~

By the end of the school day, Kunpimook almost felt hopeful that something will be okay. The burner was in his jacket pocket, Yugyeom's number already in it. He was sure he wouldn't have to use it any time sure - he hoped so, at least, and he knew Yugyeom did as well.

They met at the front of the school, staying partially hidden from others by standing near a clump of trees and shrubbery at the edge of the campus. Kunpimook felt brave - he laced his fingers through Yugyeom's as they stood outside and talked in the five minutes the shorter teen could spare before having to leave for home.

"I can't tell you to stay safe, but if you need me..." The gentle giant raised a hand to his lover's face, gently running his thumb over Kunpimook's lips. His fingertips smoothed over the place where they both knew had resided a bruise just days prior.

"I know." Kunpimook leaned into Yugyeom's touch, looking up at the other with expectant eyes. Yugyeom chuckled before moving his lips closer to the other's, both of them sighing when their lips met. They pulled apart, resting their foreheads against each other. Kunpimook opened his mouth, wanting to say something, anything to make this moment last longer, when a sound he hadn't heard in years interrupted his thoughts. A familiar car horn.

In that moment, Kunpimook felt fear more than he had even known was possible to have.

He turned around slowly to see his father behind the wheel of their old, beaten up pick up which Kunpimook hadn't personally seen in years. He knew his father took it out often - he had to, to drive and get alcohol - but it hadn't happened while he was home or awake, ever. By the look on his face, his father had seen everything.

If there was one thing his father hated more than lies, it was gays.

Kunpimook realized he was still in Yugyeom's arms, and he hastily took a step back. 

"I have to go." He breathed out, his voice shaking and skin white. Yugyeom looked at the truck and then at Kunpimook, and then back at the truck. A sudden realization came across his features, immediately replaced by fear for the other boy.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Yugyeom said quietly, more to himself than to Kunpimook; just as it was more a prayer than a statement.

~

Of all the days his M.I.A. father could have chosen, he chose the worst, Kunpimook thought fearfully as he sat as far away as he could from his father in the cramped truck. Nothing was said during the car ride, no words exchanged.

Kunpimook wasn't sure if that was bad or good.

The first thing the adolescent did when they reached their home was hang up his jacket and pray, pray hard that his father wouldn't search it. He put his backpack up as he normally did, trying to pretend that everything was okay. The Thai boy even sat down at his desk as he always did after school, pretending to focus on schoolwork as usual.

This false image of 'normalcy', however, was shattered swiftly and easily by his father's voice.

"Kunpimook." He said quietly, his voice coming from the living room. With shaking legs and a sandpapery throat, the boy in question got up and followed his name. He said nothing when he approached his father.

"You're a fag."

Kunpimook didn't respond, but his heart shattered into a million pieces at the slur. He had expected it, of course he had, but it being said by his own father still hurt.

"Are you, or are you not?"

The boy swallowed, looking down at the worn wood floor. "Yes, sir."

His father didn't say anything. Kunpimook heard him stand up and walk off, and that was when he looked up, thinking that, maybe, the worst was over for then.

He was wrong.

With one hard slap, he was on the ground, holding his cheek while gasping. More hits follow - punches, kicks, anything and everything his father can land, he does. At one point Kunpimook felt something digging into his ankle. It was a leg on the coffee table, and it drew blood. There was no time to think, however, as that was when his father chose to push his head into the ground, illiciting a choked, half scream, half sob, from his son.

The punches and kicks to his stomach and ribs blurred together as Kunpimook choked on his own spit, trying not to bite off his tongue. He put his hands up in a feeble attend to keep the evils in his home at bay, but it was to no avail.

Finally, finally, his father stopped, presumably tired even though it was Kunpimook who lay on the ground, barely breathing. Kunpimook heard the garage door open, the car engine start. The garage door closed, and he knew that his father was gone, if only for a short while. 

He was still alive - that had to count for something.

 _Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy Darling,_  
_Even Captain Hook—_  
_You are my perfect story book_  
_Neverland, I love you so,_  
_You are now my home sweet home_  
_Forever a lost boy at last_  
  
_And for always I will say…_

It took him an eternity to get up, and even then it felt like hell has chased him across the world and back. His head ached, he could barely breathe. His only thought was Yugyeom. Yugyeom, Yugyeom, Yugyeom.

Kunpimook fumbled with the phone, even his fingers aching. He got it, however, his sense of franticness prevailing. Yugyeom picked up not two rings later.

"BamBam?"

"Get to my house, I live in the old one at the end of Sycamore. Please." His voice was strained and he couldn't actually say anything else. Kunpimook did the most logical thing, then - hang up. It was good that he did, as it turned out. 

The next moment he was on the ground again, eyes closed, breathing barely palpable, and a trickle of blood dripping from his mouth.

  
~

When Yugyeom had reached Kunpimook's house, he was already panicked. His friend-not-friend had called him, only to give him an ominous sounding sentence and a singular 'Please.' This made him a ball of frantic energy, which only worsened when nobody answered the door. Never having been patient, especially in important situations, Yugyeom walked the perimeter of the house, looking in the windows.

He nearly dropped his phone when he glimpsed BamBam, his BamBam, lying motionless on the ground. His wits were about him, however, and he had the sense to call a 911 operative the second he caught sight of the situation the older boy was in. After hurriedly explaining what he knew of the situation to the operator, he went back to stand outside the front door, mouth behind his hand, trying to calm down and stop hyperventilating. 

Within moments police officers were breaking down the door. They searched the house for Kunpimook's father, who only got back later, drunk off his ass. He was arrested on the spot.

Yugyeom watched, in a state of catatonic shock, as they hooked his lover up to a million different machines and wheeled him into the ambulance, driving away at the speed of light to have even a chance of saving BamBam. 

Yugyeom wasn't allowed in the ambulance, because he wasn't 'family'. What the paramedics didn't know, the highschooler thought bitterly, was that he was as close to a family as BamBam had ever known. Still, he drove home.

Yugyeom didn't sleep for three days. It was partially due to the fact that he had no idea which hospital BamBam was at, and partially because no news of his sort-of-boyfriend had reached him in any way. 

On the third day, however, he woke to his cellphone ringing like crazy at four in the morning. Before he could get pissed, however, he took note of the caller ID.

Suddenly, he was wide awake. He answered it, putting the phone on speaker so he could listen as he dressed.

"This is Just Right Medical Center, are you, by any chance, Kim Yu-"

"I am, yeah. How is he?" He cut the voice off, eager for news about BamBam. 

"He's awake, now. Minor concussion, a few broken ribs. He coughed up blood the first night we had him, but that's stopped since then and stabilized. He collapsed that night due to exhaustion and his past traumas taking a toll on him, physically. I shouldn't even say this or let this happen, but because he's been showing obvious signs of improvement..." The doctor trailed off, before sighing and resuming. "He's been asking for you, and I thought that, because of how well he's been doing, we may as well let you visit. Only an hour, at most, however, and it will have to be at ten, today."

"I'll be there as soon as possible." Yugyeom ended the call while simultaneously pulling on his shirt. Once brushed and dressed, he checked the time on his alarm clock.

He had ten minutes to be at the hospital.

The highschooler swore before grabbing his phone and all but running out the door to his convertible. He sent his mother a quick text explaining where he was and not to worry, before speeding off in the direction of the hospital. 

Yugyeom's stomach grumbled, but he willed it to keep silent. BamBam was more important than breakfast.

 _I am a lost boy from Neverland_  
_Usually hanging out with Peter Pan_  
_And when we’re bored we play in the woods_  
_Always on the run from Captain Hook_  
_“Run, run, lost boy,” they say to me,_  
_“Away from all of reality.”_  
  
_Neverland is home to lost boys like me_  
_And lost boys like me are free_

Yugyeom's parents took Kunpimook in the last few months before he turned eighteen. When he had gotten out of the hospital, thinner than before and wearing sunglasses for his concussion, his body pressed against Yugyeom's side, the Kim parents had taken great pity on him. They grew to love him as he loved them - even though they didn't allow Kunpimook and Yugyeom to share a bedroom, understandably. In return for their kindness, Kunpimook had promised them that, the day he had turned eighteen, he would move out and into his own apartment, out of their hair.

To do this, Yugyeom had landed his boyfriend (they had decided they were officially dating the moment Kunpimook woke up in the hospital to find Yugyeom looking down at him, looking scared and in love and worried and every emotion possible) a job at the mall he worked at. Outside of that, over the summer Yugyeom taught dance lessons at the local recreation center and Kunpimook took up odd jobs here and there. All of their money earned went towards Kunpimook's apartment and the rent. They went on dates. They tried to pretend everything was normal.

This, of course, was not the case. Group therapy and antidepressants became a large part of Kunpimook's life for a short while after his father's arrest. Being alone, which had been such a comforting thought to him before, became his worst fear.

The first few nights he spent at his own apartment, he found himself unable to sleep.

Eventually, when he turned eighteen as well, Yugyeom moved in with his boyfriend. Nights were spent in each others arms underneath blankets they had worked their asses off to buy on top of a bed which had cost so much it had forced them to barely eat for a month. The only furniture in their apartment was the bed for a long while - at least, most of the way through senior year. Through all of this, they continued school. The difference there was that everyone knew what had happened to Kunpimook, how Yugyeom and Kunpimook lived.

Suddenly, everyone knew him. Kunpimook was still learning to embrace that.

Both of them walked across the stage at the end of the year, diplomas in hand. They had each gotten accepted to out of state colleges and state colleges alike.

In the end they both opted to start out in community college - that way they could stay together and at least begin their college education while still saving up money for possibly furthering their learning some day.

The most important thing that happened after that night, the last night Kunpimook ever saw his father, was not the apartment or the jobs he worked.

It was the nightmares.

He had never had them before; Yugyeom said this was because he had been living the nightmare. Kunpimook never looked too far into them other than stopping them from happening, however.

All he knew about them was that they made him wake up with pale skin and cold sweats and the occasional screams. They made him want to crawl into the deepest hole he could and lay there until he rotted away, becoming another forgotten memory. They made him want to die, and they made him yearn for the life he had had before, sickly enough.

Waking up in Yugyeom's strong arms, with his head in the taller's boy's chest and the younger always running a hand down his back and kissing away his fears, however, always stopped these emotions, always kept them away.

This made Kunpimook think back to Peter Pan and his band of Lost Boys in Neverland, their heaven.

Yugyeom was Kunpimook's neverland, and, even though he didn't know it, Kunpimook was Yugyeom's.

For the first time in his life, Kunpimook was truly free.

Every night he fell asleep in Yugyeom's arms was another night in heaven.

_Neverland is home to lost boys like me  
And lost boys like me are free _

 

 

 

 


End file.
